Hi all

What is lost in these discussions is that there are many pesticides which are toxic to bees and neonics may be one of the least problematical. Beekeepers and environmentalists need to work _with_ agriculturists to forge compromises. The factionalization of the world seems to be increasing, with lines drawn in the sand over every issue. Few people appear interested in the idea of a mutually beneficial solution, preferring to dig in and fight forever. You see this on a global, national, and regional level. Sadly, every time one of these factions "wins" they use the victory as leverage to raise money to finance other battles, often completely unrelated. Here's a bit of back story from 1953:

> For years economic entomology has suffered from a dichotomy of purpose arising, on the one hand, from the necessity of controlling harmful insects and, on the other, from the necessity of protecting beneficial forms of life. It was only upon the advent of the synthetic organic insecticides with their comparatively selective toxicity that entomologists began to hope for a chemical program of insect control which would not cause too drastic an upset in the balance of nature. And it is only this selective toxicity of organic insecticides which makes a study of the toxicity of insecticides to honeybees worthwhile. 

> When there were no adequate alternate methods of chemical control of insects, and the grower had to choose between using a specific insecticide or employing the wholly inadequate programs of cultural and biological control, studies of the effects of the insecticide on bees were largely academic. 

> But with a constantly increasing number of insecticides to choose from, a grower can, if he wishes, select the insecticide which will cause a minimum of damage to bees and still control insect pests. Since farmers are becoming increasingly aware of the value of honeybees as pollinators of many field crops, there is at least some hope that the insecticides which show the least toxicity to bees will be preferred on many farms. 

Weaver, J. N. (1953). Toxicity of Certain Organic Insecticides to Honeybees (Doctoral dissertation, A. & M. College of Texas.).

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